Always Alright
by saveanimpalarideanangel
Summary: The adventures of Rose and the Meta Crisis Doctor in Pete's universe. The Meta Crisis Doctor struggles to adjust to his humanity, works at a relationship with Rose, and finds plenty of Alien trouble on Earth to investigate while they wait for the TARDIS to grow. Rated k for now, may change in the future.


It felt like kissing Her Doctor. So much so that she momentiarily forgot that Her Doctor was actually standing a few feet away. It wasn't until the TARDIS engiens kicked on that she even realized he had moved.

Rose all but threw the Half Human Doctor away from her as she ran twoard the ghostly vision of the fadding ship. Her knees were began to was not the first time her heart had been broken by The Doctor. She supposed she ought to be used to it at this point; the layers of scare tissue that had grown over the old wounds of her heart should protect her from any more trauma. But this... It was like her chest had been torn open and someone was holding her heart, scare tissue and all, while Dalkes fired at it.

For a moment, she thought she might collapse.

The the Half Human Doctor came up behind her and laced his fingers with hers, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. She could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn't quite bring herself to look away from the spot where the TARDIS had been.

"He... He's gone." The words were out of her moth before she had even realized she'd thought them. Before she could think about the effect the might have on the man standing next to her.

After a moments hesitation, he said, "Yes. Yes, he's gone. I'm sorry Rose."

He droped her hand then, and gently touched her shoulder before turning around starting the walk across the beach to where Jackie was waiting.

"So what happens now?" Jackie asked him.

"I don't know," The Half Human Doctor admitted. He ran a hand through his hair and scratched at his scalp. "I think we should just give her a few minuets. Give her some time to digest."

The seconds ticked by slowly. Much slower than what The Doctor was used to. How ironic, he thought, that after all of this time apart, all of the longing and the lonley nights, after all of the daydreams of finding his way back to Rose Tyler... How ironic that these seconds after finally being phyiscally reunited, but maybe not emotionally, felt so much longer. Being a Time Lord, The Doctor was embaressed to admit that he couldn't tell weather it was thirty seconds or five minuets he and Jackie spent standing there, staring at the back of Rose's head. Watching her pine for a man she would never see again. The Doctor was so distracted by the sight that the feelings and sensations of his new half human body were all but forgoten for the time being. When they did begin to make themselves know again, when Rose Tyler finally took a deep breath, turned, and began walking twoard them, eyes on her shoes the whole time, the first thing The Doctor noticed was his singular heart.

Logically, he would have expected that having half the number of hearts he previously had, he would have only felt half of the heartache he was accustome to. How wrong he was. This was a whole new level of heartbrake. His Rose was here, right in front of him, devistated because of something The Doctor had done, and there was nothing he could do to comfort her. How did his single human heart not impolode from the travisty of it?

The answer came seconds later. The edges of his heart began to harden, and his vision went red with anger. How dare his fully Time Lord conterpart handel this situation in this maner. The Half Human Doctor had been born in battel, and, had the roles been reversed and he had been the one to fly away in the TARDIS, not even he would have just _left._ Not even he, born of blood and genocide, would have been that crule.

Jackie began to walk, closing the distance between her and her daughter, wraping her arms around Rose, and standing on tip toes to kiss her forhead.

"I'm alright mum," she said, but she hugged her back just the same. Over Jackies shoulder, Rose met the Half Human Doctors eyes. He didn't make a move to go nearer to her. He didn't offer any words. What was there he could possibley say? The Doctor was the one who finally looked away, dropping his gaze to his trainers and rubbing at the back of his neck. When he looked up again, the two women were walking back to him.

"So how are we getting home then?" Rose asked.

"I'll call your father, have him send a car. Ofcourse that ninney would leave us stranded in the middel of _Norway,_" Jackie spat, shaking her head.

"It's the only place I- He could have left you," The Half Human Doctor reminded her. He suspected that Jackie already knew this, that she just needed to lash out at the Time Lord for abandoning her daughter again.

Jackies only responce was to scoff while she pulled out her mobile.

"He's right mum," Rose agreed. Jackie rolled her eyes, and turned away from Rose and The Doctor to chatter into her phone. Rose glanced to The Doctor. "So... How are you feeling? You know, with the human bits and all."

"Um..." The Half Human Doctor hadn't really had time to take invintory of his new body yet. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He could feel his one heart blood pumping through his veins, and the hollowness in the right side of his chest. He could feel his lungs converting oxygen to carbon. He could feel each of his organs, especially his stomach as it rotated and grumbeled. He could feel his cells as they died and were replaced with new ones. New, organiclly remade cells. Not a bit of regeneration energy to be found. He could feel himself dying, he realized with a bolt of panic. Could all humans feel it? The Doctor looked at Rose. No, of course she couldn't feel her body breaking down all around herself. Couldn't feel the constant battel it was fighting every second just to keep up with the required repairs. But how could he tell Rose that?

"I feel... Off balance." He put his right hand over the empty spot on his chest where his second heart would be. "Used to a bit more symatry." He forced himself to smile, and his eyes crinckeled around the edges. His spirits lifted a bit when Rose mirrerod his expression.

"Well, if you need someone to lean on..." Slowly, shyly, she reached her hand out and quickly squeezed his, then she pulled back and put her hands in her coat pockets.

The Doctor couldn't remember ever seeing Rose so shy. Not ever.

"I know it doesn't feel like it," The Doctor began, "but it _is _still me Rose."

"No, I know," she replied. "It's just... You're not _Him._ He's still out there, somewhere, and I know he has Donna now-" The Half Human Doctor didn't dare think about what would happen to Donna Noble. No human brain could last that long with so much Time Lord running through it, but he wouldn't mention that to Rose now. "It's just... He and I had all of those adventures. We saw and did so much and he's still out there. What if something happens to him? What if he gets hurt and there's no one to help him?" A singel tear rolled down her check.

"He managed for 900 years before you Rose. It'll be difficult for him for a while; he'll hurt and be impossible to live with for it, but he'll be alright. He's always alright," The Half Human Doctor reminded her. Rose bit her lip, and after a moment, she nodded. The Doctor shifted so there were only meer inches between them. He cupped her face in both of his hands. "I _am_ him. So when I say this, know for sure that I mean it. He's left so many people behind Rose. He left Sarah Jane behind. He even left his own grand daughter. But don't you think for a second that leaving you was easy for him. I told you once, that you could spend the rest of your life with me, but I couldn't spend mine with you. That's still true for him. At some point, he would have lost you again, and it would have been so much harder for him if he had gotten to keep you for another 60 years, watch you get old and sick while he regenrated himself new bodies... It would have killed him, Rose."

"And what about you?" she questioned. "How are you going to feel in another 60 years when you get old and sick and you _can't _regenorate yourself a new body?" It terrified him to no end. He had an expiration date, and in perspective of the 900 years he'd lived priviously, it was right around the corner. Before his face could give any of his parinoia away, a small voice in the back of his head remindedh im that 60 years spend aging with Rose Tyler was better that 3000 spent living without her. It was no compition. The Doctor smiled.

"That depends... Do you think you're mum will still be around to try to make me chicken noodel soup when I'm ill? As long as that doesn't happen, I think I'll be able to manage."

Rose laughed. It was the first time she had laughed since they landed on the beach, and The Doctors face light up. She playfully punched his arm, and while he hand was in the vacinety, he ceased it with his own.

"Alright," Jackie decalred as she returned to the pair. "Your fathers sending a car for us. Can't get the Zepline out here with the weather that's expcted to roll in. Shouldn't be more than thiry minuets or so."

"We could start walking," Rose suggested. "Meet them as they're coming up the road. Better than standing around here and freezing once the sun goes down." No one objected.

Not letting go of eachothers hands, they set off for the road with Jackie walking closely behind.


End file.
